The Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton T.D., announced the launch of the School Excellence Fund – Step Up Project.

Nine schools from across the country are participating in the initial pilot phase taking place over the coming school year.

The Step Up Project focuses on supporting schools to ‘step up’ in the delivery of the new junior cycle programme. Schools will work together and will be supported by the Inspectorate, who will help with planning and the JCT, who will provide additional teacher training.

The School Excellence Fund approach, which focuses on encouraging local collaboration and innovation, is key to delivering on the governments overall ambition to making Ireland’s education and training service the best in Europe by 2026.

Teachers from each school will participate in an opening seminar in Athlone today where they will collaborate to develop their thinking around the Step Up Project and work with members of JCT and the Inspectorate to refine their Step Up Project plan for the year ahead.

Making the announcement, Minister Bruton said, “The opportunity provided by the Step Up Project will empower participating schools to move to highly effective practice in their implementation of the Framework for Junior Cycle. In this way, they will impact positively on student learning and their experience will be used to support other schools as they engage in Junior Cycle reform. I welcome the collaboration of the Inspectorate and Junior Cycle for Teachers in facilitating appropriate and effective professional learning for the schools in this initial stage of the project”.

Step Up Project: Phase One Schools